the weekly pencil.

There is something to be said for a classic yellow pencil. After being inspired by episode 60 of Erasable, I decided to dig into my pencil case and try out a pencil I have yet to review/use. I was immediately drawn to the Ceres due to its sharp lines and unique script that was stamped on the barrel.

Musgrave produces four grades of this pencil and I am using the #1 grade for this review. Immediately upon sharpening the Ceres I was greeted with the smell of good old cedar. The Ceres sharpened very easily and the graphite was perfectly centered which allowed for even sharpening. Interestingly enough, about a third of the way through the pencil, I found a knot in the wood barrel.

I had never seen this before and though it was pretty interesting. The small imperfection made the next few sharpenings difficult as the graphite was exposed unevenly, but once I sharpened my way out of it things were fine. Writing with the Ceres was great and the pencil laid down decent lines. The graphite was nice and smooth and I'd say the darkness was comprabale to a 2B (this is totally just eyeballing it). The eraser on the Ceres was below average at best.

The rubber was very gritty and when I did try to erase with it, it wore down very quickly. Don't plan on using the eraser if you don't have to. The black paint on the barrel began to wear off pretty quickly with normal use, but that kind of stuff doesn't bother me. I prefer a well-worn writing instrument. Overall, the Musgrave Ceres is a great little pencil that is completely affordable (40 cents a piece at CW Pencils), but did not entirely win me over. While I stated the graphite was smooth and not scratchy, it did not have the buttery smoothness I prefer in my graphite. Also, not only is the eraser pretty crappy, but I had a hard time erasing with my everyday block eraser as well. The graphite comes off the paper, but not as cleanly as I like. If I had to give a rating it would be a meh. average. Stay tuned, because next week I will be reviewing the newest CW Pencils acquisitions: The Goldfish Autocrat, Blue Bird, and Vista from Shashon Pencil Company.